The Collinsport Weather Report: Episode 38: The Count of Monte Cristo

Wednesday, August 17, 1966

My name is Victoria Winters. The grey light of morning has come again to Collinwood, and the strange sounds of the night should seem thousands of miles away. Yet I can still hear it in my mind, the helpless crying that filled the shadows of the great house on Widow’s Hill, crying that had drawn me down musty stairs to a strange and forbidding door.

Matthew (recast) finds Vicki in the basement. She says she’s looking for books for David. He assures her they aren’t in the locked storeroom and points out where the books are.

He tries to get her to come back up with him. She says she’ll come after she finds what she’s looking for, some Rover Boys books David told her about. He says he doesn’t think Mrs. Stoddard would like her being down there by herself.

Vicki asks him if he believes in ghosts, if he’s ever heard any sobbing in the night.

“Josette Collins. That’s who you’re talkin’ about, isn’t it?”

Vicki asks if he really believes that.

He’s never been there late enough at night, but Josette is there. She cries.

Vicki tells him she heard it the first night she was there.

He says she should stay in her room when she hears that sobbing. He accuses her of snooping. She says she’s just looking for books.

Liz calls down, asking if Matthew is there. She wants him to come up so she can talk with him.

Carolyn arrives at the restaurant and sees Burke. She wonders if he’s going to ask her to join him.

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

“It was safe enough last night for Vicki Winters, wasn’t it?”

She sees he’s reading The Count of Monte Cristo, the story of a man seeking revenge.

She brings up Vicki again.

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned Miss Winters.”

“Miss Winters!” She had dinner in his hotel room last night and he still doesn’t call her Vicki?

“I’ll get around to it. Give me time.”

“I don’t think I will.”

“What?”

“Give you time.”

Liz gives Matthew a list of supplies to get. Matthew doesn’t like Burke. Liz tells Matthew he didn’t do anything to Roger. She tells him he was responsible for the accident. Or at least that’s the story she wants him to tell.

He doesn’t understand. It’ll make him out to be a fool. But he’ll do as she asks.

Then he tells her about Vicki in the basement.

Liz goes down to confront Vicki.

Vicki tells her she heard crying last night, and she doesn’t believe in ghosts.

Liz says she’s heard the wind, the floors creak, the shutters bang—occasionally crying.

That room is only a storeroom. No one is in there crying in the night.

Liz shows her where the Rover Boys books are.

Burke questions Carolyn about Sam Evans, but she doesn’t know anything. He asks her if she’s nervous about something. She says she’s not. They have more coffee. She offers to be his tour guide for things that have been added to the Collinsport area since he’s been away.

He can’t. He has an appointment to get his portrait painted. He wants to know if she always makes friends with her family’s enemies.

She says he’s no one’s enemy. She asks to go along with him to Bangor for his business appointment. They could have lunch. She tells him she’s not a little girl.

“Maybe not. But you don’t have to make a point of proving it.”

She thinks that’s nasty and uncalled for. She still expects him to call her, though.
And she leaves her ring on the table.

Vicki tells Liz about the phone call for Ned Calder at about 2 a.m.
Liz calls him back.

Matthew comes to the restaurant. Burke recognizes him. Matthew remembers Burke too. He warns Burke that if he brings any trouble to Mrs. Stoddard, he will kill him.

Even if they ask for trouble? Burke wants to know.